Direct Marketing Company

A direct marketing company could be a multi level marketing company where neighbors sell to neighbors and friends or a company that specializes in telemarketing and direct mail or other methods of straight to the consumer type of advertising and sales. A company such as this will maintain large databases of email addresses, residential addresses and phone numbers of targeted customers. Often these databases can be divided down into special interest groups by age, gender, income, education, location of residence, hobbies and occupation. This makes the targeting of groups more likely to buy from certain companies easier and the results more effective. Direct or straight to the consumer in an unsolicited manner type of marketing is usually based on a company's claim that the customer must take advantage of a sale, a bargain, a soon to be expired inventory or other "must do it now" situation. If the advertising generated by a marketing enterprise asks for a person to call a number or go to a website, it fits the definition of "straight to the consumer" promoting.

Many non-profit agencies across the country use the power of "straight to the consumer" type of fundraising. Because this is such a niche type of appeal, the culture of non-profit fundraising needs to be handled by a business that specializes in, or has had vast experience with fundraising. When a direct marketing company is employed to raise donations, the customer has the right to expect a company that is excellent at building relationships with a particular demographic population, communicate the customer's unique standing in the community, be able to provide a vast array of reports communicating how the fundraising process is going and keep all accrued data secure from hackers. Relying on just one manner of donating is pass, and the marketing provider should be able to give potential donors several different methods of giving, both on and off line. God wants us all to make plans, both business and personal, for tomorrow but not to count on them being implemented. "Boast not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may bring forth." (Proverbs 27:1)

A direct marketing company may be able to provide telemarketing services for a business. Nothing quite raises red flags like telemarketing conversation, but a "straight to the customer" promotional company that abides by strict ethical practices can generate a great deal of commerce for its customers. Political parties, fundraising campaigns, companies needing marketing surveys, and direct sales efforts can all benefit from telemarketing campaigns conducted in a professional manner. But a direct marketing company can also provide a direct mail campaign that is effective and not quite as obtrusive as a telemarketing campaign. And for commerce owners who are concerned about a company image being hurt by telemarketing, a straight to the customer postal campaign can be a useful tool for advertising and promotion.

Mailing out challenges to targeted recipients for the express purpose of responding to sales, inventory clearances, special pricing or other offerings can be quite effective when the focus is on highly focused potential customers. A direct marketing company can usually offer very highly vetted and specific mailing lists for much focused companies. The companies can include real estate agencies, brokerage houses, auto dealerships and b2b contacts. Of course in direct mailing campaign, there needs to be some way of measuring success. While increased business is certainly the most prominent measuring stick, records of deliverability and follow up to customer reactions to the mailing can be provided by some marketing companies. Research has shown that a campaign of straight to the customer postal mail that happens over a dozen times begins to actually build trust within the customer for the brand name or the name of the company being promoted. This is wildly more effective than just getting on the phone and cold calling, a method despised by most entrepreneurs.

A method of "straight to the customer" advertising and promotion that has been used to great success is the implementation of an email campaign. No medium has the opportunity to reach so many people for the money than this particular method, but it is fraught with peril and the need to know the science of a successful email campaign. A direct marketing company can offer telemarketing, direct mail and email services under one roof, but it may be wiser to consider a company for each of these widely varying promotional efforts because they each require very specific skill sets. In the case of a successful email promotional campaign, very specific knowledge and abilities are needed from a direct marketing company. Consider the technology that this kind of campaign needs to track and report, filter, and keep all data secure and one can understand why this might be important to have a dedicated service provider.

When using email as a "straight to the customer" form of marketing, the need for mailing lists that have "opt in" declination filters is huge. This type of mailing list means that those who will be receiving your email campaign will willingly look at it instead of spamming it or hitting the delete key. The direct marketing company that is hired should be required to show how their lists were developed, or perhaps they were purchased from another supplier and that might spell trouble. Most companies providing email campaigns will not promise or guarantee any responses to the campaign, but they may very well guarantee the email being opened. Then the onus is on the strength of the email content.

Direct Marketing Firm

A direct marketing firm can be the small business owner's best friend when it comes to increasing customer awareness, company branding and greater bottom line profits. A company such as this has intimate knowledge of the constant changes in the marketing arena and can pass that knowledge on to small business owners in order that the best decisions for the dollar spent can be made. This kind of company can provide constantly updated reports and statistics in order that the owner can make independent decisions about how to accomplish his or her goals for short and long term profitability. Using a straight to the customer promotional firm is often the result of a business attempting to do promotion alone, or with just a piece of software that is advertised to do it all for the small business owner. But all too often, there are missing pieces of the puzzle and the result is very disappointing results. So the business person turns to a promotional firm to make the next campaign successful.

Direct marketing is defined as an effort by retail and service providers as well as non-profits and other organization to go directly to the consumer without invitation. Television and radio ads may seem to be a form of direct marketing, and they are to some extent, but the definition of such straight to the customer marketing approaches is usually defined by snail mail, email, or telemarketing. Telemarketing wins the prize for the most obnoxious form of the "right at you" form of advertising, but not too far behind are the stuffed mailboxes and 100 daily spam messages jammed in our inboxes at home or at work. And even during harder economic times, the mailboxes around the country are still filled with all kinds of direct mailing tidbits, some super glossy and glitzy, and others looking like they were run on a fifty dollar copier in the back of an '87 van. The idea of God being eternal with no beginning and no ending can boggle the mind when truly contemplated, but it is that eternality that gives God the ability to offer us rock solid promises and help. "Lord, Thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God." (Psalm 90:1-2)

A direct marketing firm may only specialize in one form of the three aforementioned techniques of right at the customer efforts. And if a business person only wants to do one of those campaigns, that specialty focus will be to his advantage. A direct marketing firm can, but usually does not offer in house management of all three types of marketing disciplines. This may be a real advantage in coordinating an all out blitz on consumers in a particular demographic. Coordination is vital if more than one type of "right at the customer" type of advertising is used and a direct marketing firm can advise on how to coordinate a combination of the three techniques. When choosing such a firm, listen carefully to the philosophy behind its marketing strategies. Look at the list of companies that have used them before and call them as well as other former or present clients and ascertain their satisfaction with the firm you are considering.

The most important assets a direct marketing firm can offer a client are a+ lists of leads for his business. The many little insider tips that an expert in promotions may have to offer means absolutely nothing is there if no sophisticated recipient list to go along with the campaign. For snail mail, lists that discriminate in terms of income, area of residence, occupation, age, hobbies and oftentimes education are extremely important for the success of the campaign. For telemarketing, those very same discriminatory factors should be employed. For emailing efforts, those same discriminations plus the added opt-in or even better double opt-in lists are essential. The reality of all this highly focused effort is that without it, response rates hover around .05% and conversion rates or actual sales from those responses are about 2% of the .05%. With highly focused efforts by a direct marketing firm response rates can rise sometimes to 5% and conversion rates to 10%. But there are many factors and variables that go into these numbers and questions covering these issues should be made in the initial conversations with a possible direct marketing firm.

Direct marketing have everything to do with calling a potential customer to immediate action. Buy Now, Call Us Today, Visit this Website, Three Days Only and other action phrases are always a part of a "straight at the customer" effort. The successful direct marketing effort will always be a hardnosed call to action, and will include a nice reward for the customer that responds. Three days at fifty percent off, the chance to win a sweepstakes for visiting a website in the next ten days, the first ten thousand customers to call will receive at no charge...are all rewards that come along with a direct marketing firm and its strategy for increased sales. With telemarketing, the script is everything and the development of that script in cooperation with the client is paramount. With the direct mailing, the "hook" of the immediate is important. And in emailing, not only is the immediate important, and not only is reward important, but just the subject line itself and its compilation is a huge factor in whether or not that "iffy, looks like spam" message even gets opened.